Table Topic questions are meant to stimulate family and classroom discussion.
Use the questions below after reading,"Chasing the wolves of sin."

In 1900, gambling, prostitution and saloons flourished in the city's notorious Tenderloin
red-light district. Some people openly tolerated vice; others advised containment;
still others wanted to eliminate it. Despite disagreement on the course of action,
most people agreed on what vice was. Have our perceptions of these activities changed?
Is there social consensus on what is considered 'vice' today, and how do we deal with it?

A Centennial page photograph shows city officials destroying illegal gambling equipment.
Today our state government runs a legal state lottery and casinos flourish on Native American land.
As a society, have our views about gambling changed? What distinguishes legal gambling from illegal,
and should there be any difference? What controls should our society exert over gambling?

The reformers led by Reverend Matthews were passionate in their convictions, marching
through Tenderloin streets and engineering the recall of politicians believed to be "on the take."
Think of recent times people felt motivated to march, to protest, to organize. Have you ever been
influenced by mass political protest, either positively or negatively? Have you ever felt so
deeply that you actively participated on an issue or "took to the streets?"

Sometimes people involved in a cause become overzealous and take extreme measures,
as when the Purity Squad picked up the innocent as well as the guilty. Can you think of
contemporary examples of this?

Where do you draw the line between legitimate protest and harassment?
Current youth curfew laws, for example, stir similar debate on the balance between
social good and individual freedom. Is this a practical approach to a real problem?
Or an unacceptable loss of freedom?

Then, as now, vice, corruption and controversy sold newspapers.
Publisher Alden Blethen was in the odd position of giving extensive coverage
to charges of political corruption while openly supporting the accused political
establishment. This probably helped to balance coverage since The Times was a powerful
advocate for the publisher's opinions.

Think about advocacy and the diversity of today's
media, from editorial pages to talk radio to public access cable. Do multiple voices
tend to lessen or concentrate media power? Do many voices make it easier to get the facts
or more difficult to decide an issue or come to consensus?

The power of the women's vote after suffrage was felt immediately. On the issue of Mayor Gill's recall,
The Times appealed to female sympathies by promoting Gill as a family man. The recall movement,
on the other hand, appealed to women's sense of moral outrage over kickbacks and vice.
How is the "women's vote" perceived today? Do you think women tend to vote on issues as a block?

There are a number of cartoons on the Centennial page,
depicting the main players in the reform debate. Where are political cartoons
in the modern newspaper and what's their function? How would you begin to design
political caricatures of current 1996 presidential candidates? Do you have a favorite
editorial cartoonist? Have you ever saved a political cartoon because it expressed your
point of view so succinctly?